Archive Columns (Page 1)
Harvick Wins, Johnson leads pack
into Homestead
November 14, 2006 - Kevin Harvick has certainly figured out how to get around Phoenix International Raceway. In the four 2006 events among Busch and Cup, the Childress driver has come away with three wins and a second.
Sunday’s Cup win marked the fifth of the year for the Goodwrench driver, who now sits 90 points away in third to points leader Jimmie Johnson.
Johnson ran to the front after starting fairly deep in the pack. He led a good number of laps, but Harvick appeared to have the strong horse of the day, leading most of them. Could Johnson have pressured the situation over the closing laps? Yes, but he was smart enough to look at the big picture, take a great points day with only Homestead left on the schedule.
Let’s remember Johnson has come from the bottom of the top ten after the first Chase race in New Hampshire to being on the cusp of a long awaited first title. Harvick won the battle, but Johnson is very close to winning the war and the 2006 title.
Eight of the top ten finishers were members of the Chase starting with Johnson, Denny Hamlin edging Jeff Gordon over the final lap, Carl Edwards, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne finally finished a race, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jeff Burton battled to cap the top ten.
Matt Kenseth struggled all day, managing to pull out a 13th place finish, which puts the Roush Ford driver in second spot, yet 63 markers back.
The only other Chase member, Kyle Busch had another bad day, this time finishing 38th, which has pretty much cemented the Hendrick driver to 10th in the Chase.
Jamie McMurray ran well most of the day, hanging in the bottom of the top ten, until he felt the wrath of Tony Stewart’s bumper late in the go, which kicked off a multi-car wreck.
Over in the Busch ranks, Matt Kenseth was able to hold off this year’s Busch series winner, Kevin Harvick to take yet another Busch win. Others in the top five included Hamlin, Bowyer and Edwards.
Johnny Benson started the Craftsman Truck race on the pole, but his teammate Mike Skinner crowded him into a spin on the first lap, sending Benson into a spin and last spot. Benson spent the remainder of the race getting back to the front and did so, etching his fifth win in the books on the year.
Points leader Todd Bodine ran to a fourth, which puts the New York driver 112 ahead with just Homestead left on the calender. That puts Bodine in an enviable position to only have to finish 28th or better to claim his first NASCAR title. Once again...it’s Bodine’s to lose.
Others in the top five included a tough run by Mark Martin to second, Skinner in third and Matt Crafton to fifth.
From Rumorville - DEI branching out? There are strong conversations going on as to Yates Racing selling part or all of their racing interests, i.e. equipment and/or team shop. The two shops are five miles apart and many feel this expansion was inevitable with Menard money around.
Don’t be surprised to hear some kind of announcement next week and see some restructuring of DEI with perhaps all the Busch teams at the old Yates shops and strictly Cuppers at the Garage Mahal.
— Parts and pieces of the silly season continue with numerous crew changes among the Roush Cup ranks, mainly a swap between Edwards and the struggling Jamie McMurray. Driver assignments continue up in the air some including Virginia driver Ward Burton. All signs seem to point to a full-time gig in Cup and don’t rule out a part-time deal in Busch. Sounds like Ward’s back.
On the local level, local Late Model competitor Philip Morris traveled to Las Vegas with his crew this past weekend to accept his NASCAR National Short Track Champion Award.
The Ruckersville, VA driver has worked long and hard for this award, narrowly missing it twice over the years.
This time, Morris managed to win 14 features, most of them at Motor Mile, as well as South Boston and Caraway Speedways.
Besides picking up more than $80,000 in money and prizes, his next award will come at the big NASCAR banquet in New York City next month. Congratulations Philip!
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the NASCAR season finale in Homestead for all three divisions, some local notes and more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@adelphia.net
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Stewart Stomps Through Texas
November 7, 2006 - For the second week in a row, non-Chase member Tony Stewart spanked the rest of the field, this time at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. It certainly appears that the lack of pressure being out of the Chase agrees with the two-time champ, notching his fifth win of the season.
The Home Depot Chevy had no problem getting to the front and staying there despite anyone else’s attempt at displacing him.
Only Kasey Kahne or Jimmie Johnson had anything for Stewart, especially Kahne, but with a little more than a handful of laps remaining, one of the bulletproof Evernham Dodges went up in smoke.
Johnson came out of the weekend as the runner-up but jumped to the top of Chase, now 17 ahead of Matt Kenseth. Kenseth had a roller coaster day, but all things considered did very well to finish 12th.
Another Chase member, Dale Earnhardt Jr also survived a troubled
day to run sixth, jumping up in the standings to third.
Not-so-lucky on the day was Jeff Burton. The Childress driver’s lead in the Chase is all but forgotten and looks long in the mirror by comparison with the Virginia driver now sitting seventh, some 187 points back of Johnson.
Kevin Harvick took a third, but had to turn Scott Riggs top three car into rubble after turning him into the fence late in the go. Riggs ran well all day and appeared to be headed for a top five finish until Harvick became impatient....again. (See Rumorville)
The Goodwrench driver moved ahead one spot in the standings to sixth, but 105 back.
At this point, the Chase has come down to Johnson or Kenseth with Denny Hamlin or Dale Jr each having a shot, yet long and Harvick even longer odds.
The teams head West to Phoenix for the penultimate run before wrapping up the season in Homestead, Florida.
It was status quo at the Busch race on Saturday with Harvick stinking up the show again, this time adding No. 9 in his personal win chart for the year. Rounding out the top five were the cars of Stewart, Burton, Mark Martin and Ron Hornaday Jr.
It only took three Craftsman truck race entries for Clint Bowyer to find himself in the winner’s circle. The full-time Cup driver made it look easy by beating Kyle Busch, Mike Skinner, Jack Sprague and Hornaday Jr. to the stripe.
Points leader Todd Bodine came away 14th, but second in the points Johnny Benson suffered a blown engine in his ride, netting a 31st place finish. It’s going to take some pretty special results for Bodine to lose a 137 point lead with just two to go. It’s the New York driver’s to lose.
From Rumorville - Since we last spoke, Robby Gordon had been accused of creating the final caution flag at Atlanta in order to receive the ‘Lucky Dog’ and eventually finished 10th. NBC reporters spoke with Gordon post-race where Gordon denied the move. NASCAR took a few days to review the situation and invoked a $15,000 and loss of points (50) for driver Robby and owner Robby. The team is appealing the decision. All I can say is that pictures don’t lie and the video I saw sure looked like the piece of debris in question came out of Gordon’s Chevy.
— More post-race fun occurred after the Cup race on Sunday in Texas when a Riggs’ crew member confronted Harvick and his wife, both landing on the ground...and a NASCAR official hurt by a pit cart...what a mess. But, this was bound to happen. Kevin is known for a short fuse and a heavy front bumper and while he has calmed down to a degree, there is plenty of room for improvement. Fines and penalties are coming.
On the local level, Orange County Speedway hosted its final points racing weekend on Saturday with Twin Late Model features the main event. Jonathan Cash won the first feature with Justin Johnson and Ryan Gray capping the top three. David Triplett crossed the line first in the second ‘go’ with Johnson and Cash the runner-ups.
The Rougemont track will see many of those competing one more time this weekend for a special 300 lap Late Model feature with some serious monetary rewards at the end of the day.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will preview the final weekend in Florida for most of the NASCAR set, some local notes and more news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@adelphia.net
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Stewart tops Chasers at Atlanta
October 31, 2006 - Despite not being part of this year’s Chase, Tony Stewart took his latest win over several other Chasers among the top ten.
Stewart had a competitive car all day at Atlanta Motor Speedway, proving it in the closing stages over a very strong Dale Earnhardt Jr. Earnhardt gambled on not pitting on the last caution flag, despite most of the top runners coming in for four tires and gas.
Stewart easily swept by the Bud car and into victory lane for the 27th time in his career.
Other drivers on the day didn’t fair nearly as well.
Kyle Busch, Childress teammates Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne all had days they’d like to forget.
Busch got in a spin early, pretty much wiping out his day to any kind of decent finish (27th).
Harvick was junk all day, struggling just to wind up 31st, falling down four spots in the standings to sixth. Burton also had problems, but was able to rally back to a 13th place finish, now sitting fifth in Chase. 84 points back.
Martin got caught up in a late race wreck, with nowhere to go. The veteran racer wound up 36th, which dropped him another spot to 8th in the Chase.
Kahne had yet another late race problem, something that appears to plague the young driver most weeks of the season. This time, the car got away from him and into a fairly upset David Stremme. Kahne’s 38th place finish dropped him down another spot to ninth in the standings.
On the other side of the coin, Jimmie Johnson wound up second and sits only 26 back of leader Matt Kenseth.
Teammate Jeff Gordon got caught up in two minor tangles and still finished 6th, putting him up two spots to seventh in the Chase, but 146 back is a long road to hoe with only three races remaining.
Denny Hamlin worked hard for an eighth place finish, which sets him up a spot to third in the Chase.
Kenseth quietly ran to a fourth place finish and sits only a couple of dozen points ahead of Johnson.
At this point, the title is coming down to Kenseth, Johnson, Hamlin, Earnhardt Jr and Burton who is 84 back. The rest of the field can only dial in for next year and try to pick a win. It would take some pretty extraordinary circumstance for the bottom of the top ten to rise to the top.
Most fans are pointing to either Johnson or Kenseth. What about you? Drop me a line.
The Busch race on Saturday in Memphis? Same story...different day....Carl Edwards is leading over the final laps, only to be shoved aside, this time by Harvick, who went on to claim his eighth win of the year and just added more ridiculous numbers to the stats charts. His teammate Clint Bowyer was second and Edwards took third.
Over in the Craftsman truck ranks, Mike Bliss picked up his first win in over four years in front of Terry Cook, Eric Darnel, David Reutimann and Rick Crawford at Atlanta.
The big story there was the top two in points, those being Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson BOTH having serious problems on the day, finishing 25th and 29th respectively. Bodine extended his lead by only seven more points, now at 86 with three to go.
From Rumorville - It sounds as if IRL Champion Sam Hornish Jr will strap on a Penske Busch car in the No. 39 livery. Could this be the beginning of some Hornish full-time taxi-cab set? As my Magic 8-Ball would say, "All signs point to yes!"
— A.J. Almendinger is the latest defector from the open wheel ranks, this time Champ Car, to come over to the fender side of NASCAR full-time. Seems the young American was offered a lot more green backs to compete in Cup, so Red Bull Racing Toyota’s has scooped him up. He will be set alongside teammate Brian Vickers. Now that’s a young lineup when both drivers combined ages are less than 50!
On the local level, Frank Deiny Jr picked up $15,000 first place money, part of a $57,000 overall purse of the final big Late Model race at South Boston Speedway on Saturday.
Nick Smith, Drew Herring, NASCAR National Short Track Champion Philip Morris and Rodney Cook capped off the top five finishers.
Up at Shenandoah Speedway, brave fans endured the coldest night of the year to watch Kenny Bradley win his tenth Super Stock trophy and claim the class title. Kevin Powell and Roger Spencer were not far behind at the stripe on the final night of racing for 2006.
The tracks’ awards banquet takes place on Dec. 2nd where all class champions will be crowned. More details later.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review this week’s NASCAR trip to Texas, some local notes and more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@adelphia.net
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Johnson jumps into winner’s circle and Chase standings
October 24, 2006 - Just when many people felt Jimmie Johnson was
out of the Chase picture again...he takes his sixth Cup checkers of the year, this one at
the tough Martinsville Speedway. The Hendrick driver jumped up four spots in the Chase and
is well within striking distance of his first title.
His
teammate Jeff Gordon, dominated the first half of the race, but while Johnson’s car
improved in the late afternoon sun, Gordon’s faded slightly.
Bobby
Labonte gave Team Petty a banner day with a third, while Tony Stewart passed Gordon for
fourth and Gordon wrapped up the top five.
Kyle Petty
added to the overall team result with a tenth, a fact not accomplished for over seven
years.
Dale
Earnhardt Jr was headed for a comfortable top ten run, something he badly needed to move
up in the Chase, but the train derailed with a very late race spin. The Bud driver wound
up 22nd on the day, dropping one spot in the Chase to sixth, yet only 94 points
back of new leader Matt Kenseth who struggled to an 11th place run.
The big
disaster of the day was for Jeff Burton. He may have come into
So, as the
gang heads to
Over in the
Craftsman truck ranks, 36 trucks beat and banged on each other at
Points
leader Todd Bodine suffered a late race flat and a 14th place run. He’s
still on top, but now only 79 markers over Johnny Benson who earned a fifth. Others in the
top five included David Starr, rookie Eric Darnell and Mark Martin.
Open Wheel News - Ferrari driver Felipe Massa took the top spot in the Formula One
GP of Brazil over the weekend. Points leader Fernando Alonso took second, which was good
enough to earn his second consecutive title. Michael Schumacher wound up fourth in his
final F-1 appearance and second in the points.
In
From Rumorville - Looks as if Ward Burton will run several races in the
Morgan-McClure No. 4 Chevy for this year, but plans for next year are still up in the air.
—
Yates Racing is supposed to announce a sponsor for the No. 88 this week, then they can
narrow down their driver choices.
On the local level, Kenny Bradley picked up his ninth Super Stock trophy at Shenandoah Speedway on Saturday night in front of
fellow ex-dirt track drivers Kevin Powell and Petie Coffey.
Other
winners on the night included Jeremy Cook edging Patrick Molesworth in the Legends run and
Chad Turner nailed down his first UCAR feature. This weekend’s racing marks the end
of a long season for the Shenandoah track.
— Justin Johnson wound up the winner after Ronald Hill was
DQ’ed for rough driving at the end of the Late Model feature at Orange County Speedway. Rodney Cook and Todd Massey
were awarded second and third.
—
Things are quiet over at Ace Speedway, while
the new management plots a course for next season. Stay tuned for new sponsor
announcements and the 2007 schedule.
That’s
it for this week. Next week’s RWR will discuss the aftermath of the fastest NASCAR
track on the circuit, Atlanta Motor Speedway. Cups and Craftsman Truckers take center
stage at the
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@adelphia.net
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Bodymen busy after Lowe’s weekend
October 17, 2006 - They’ll be no rest for the weary this week.
With the amount of wrecked cars leaving Lowe’s Motor Speedway after the Busch and Cup events, the body shops of numerous race teams will be in overdrive to keep up with the remaining five events.
It started Friday night with the first wreck-a-rama leaving about 23 cars running at the end. Saturday night’s Cup debacle wound up with similar results...numerous wrecked cars and about half the field running at the end.
Is it the track? The drivers? The nighttime format? I’d say it’s all of the above. With the current combo of a fresh surface, fast cars and hungry drivers, it’s a recipe for high attrition.
The Busch race saw many leaders, but circumstances found Dave Blaney at the front late in the race, going on to take his very first NASCAR win in any division! This, after Casey Mears accidentally took out Carl Edwards as the two dueled for the win in the closing laps.
Blaney was able to hold off the likes of Michael Waltrip, Stacy Compton, Matt Kenseth and Danny O’Quinn Jr.
Kevin Harvick’s ninth place finish was easily good enough to clinch the early title. What a shock! Not.
The carnage continued with Saturday night’s Cup race where Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne among others led the night show, but it was a very strong Kahne rallying in the end to take his sixth trophy of the year.
Kahne beat Johnson, points leader Jeff Burton, Earnhardt Jr and a surprising Bobby Labonte to fifth spot.
More Chasers had tough days, rearranging the current standings.
Jeff Gordon was well among the top ten until late in the show, a rare Hendrick blown engine taking him to 24th spot and down three places to tenth in the Chase standings.
Kevin Harvick had only fourth gear left at the stripe, but was good enough for an 18th place finish, now sits third in the Chase, just 89 back of his teammate.
Mark Martin was running well, looking comfortable to a top ten finish, but tangled with J. J. Yeley, ending his night with a very hard hit and a 30th place finish. The veteran Roush racer now sits fourth, some 102 points back of Burton, losing 92 points on the day.
— The Rusty Wallace owned Iowa Speedway held its first ARCA race over the weekend where Rusty’s son Steven took the pole and the win, despite a run-in with ex F-1 ace Juan Montoya early in the show.
Montoya had taken the lead on the bottom from young Wallace, but didn’t see him when the young man tried to pass on the high side. Montoya wound up 24th. He will be doing more testing in Busch, ARCA and Cup rides in an effort to tune up for his full-time Cup deal for next year in the Ganassi No. 42.
From Rumorville - It appears that Todd Kluever is out and David Regan is in the Roush No. 6 Cup car for next year and beyond. Kluever was slated to slide in that seat, but a lackluster report card in the Busch ranks has ‘the cat in the hat’ rethinking his game plan for the important ride.
— Don’t look now, but it looks like the prodigal son is about to return behind the wheel. Latest reports indicate Ward Burton climbing into the Morgan-McClure No. 4 Chevy this weekend at Martinsville, something he hasn’t done for several years. Could it mean something long term? Could be...stay tuned.
— Robby Gordon will be leaving the Chevy camp for next season, returning to the Blue Oval gang at Ford. Gordon is also rumored to be looking to expand into a two-car team.
On the local level, Ace Speedway action saw Todd Massey pick up his 51st Late Model checkers on Friday night in front of Rodney Cook and Gary Causey.
Other winners on the night included Brian King edging Mebane’s Roy Cook in the Modified run, yet another Mebane driver Jason Cook won the Mini-Stock feature and John Gregory won the Flathead Ford feature.
A busy chilly night at Shenandoah Speedway saw Michael Hardin take the late race lead from Kenny Bradley and go on to earn his first Super Stock win.
Other class winners included Patrick Molesworth in the Legends, Greg Stanley in the UCARS and Mike Wren in the visiting 4C Super Modifieds.
That’s it for this week. Next week’s RWR will review the results from Martinsville, preview the Texas trip, some local notes and more racing news from around the globe.
Questions? Comments? Contact Russ at racinwithruss@adelphia.net
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